I dug out a small tin of beeswax someone gave me and tried that. Tried rubbing it in with my fingers, then on other lengths of thread, tried ironing it in to melt it in. It helped a little at least but way more work than I had planned! I see that Thread Heaven is discontinued so I'm trying to decide if the cost now is worth it? There is something else called Thread Magic - has anyone used that with perle cotton?
I also tried going down to a size 9 needle and it shredded the thread, so I tried the size 8. It's going ok but still bearding some. I've never had this happen while machine quilting, and since I've only ever machine quilted, this is entirely new to me! I had read that hand quilting through Warm and Natural was awful, and also had read that hand quilting bamboo was delightful, which is how I ended up in this particular situation
Live and learn, I guess.
Youngest is 2 years old, so she really won't care. @NJ do you really think washing will reduce the look of some of the bearding?
eta: I also thought Valdani was one of the better brands of perle? I know DMC is available in big box stores, but one of the comparisons of threads I read said the DMC wasn't always even thickness throughout the length, and that Valdani and Presencia were both evenly smooth with good luster. I've been eyeing a box of Sulky 12wt since apparently you can also run that (slowly) through your machine, but I have a variety of the Valdani colors so thought I'd try to use that first. Live and learn...